How can I persuade my institution to support collective funding for open access books? (Part One)

Posted by Tom Grady on Feb. 2, 2023 at 1037

The first of a two-part blog post in which our colleagues at COPIM lay out the problems with BPCs (Book Processing Charges) and disentangle the various alternatives; in Part Two they outline practical steps to convince budget holders to invest in collective models instead.

"As part of our work at COPIM, we speak to a lot of librarians. Many are personally convinced of the need to support collective funding models for open access (OA) books because these serve as equitable alternatives to the Book Processing Charge model, but many librarians find themselves in the position of needing to convince their management team or budget holders to invest in Open Access initiatives.

For librarians who find themselves in this position, we have compiled a list of resources and arguments to help inform decisions to invest in OA monograph initiatives. This will be a two part blog post: in the first we’ll give some background by laying out the problems with Book Processing Charges (BPCs) and disentangling the various alternative models; in Part Two we’ll go into more detail, with practical steps on how colleagues might convince their budget holders to invest in collective funding models.

So, why should a library or institution invest in collective funding for open access books?"

Read the rest of the blog post here: How can I persuade my institution to support collective funding for open access books? (Part One)